Advising and guidance | TRADE AND CONSUMER MARKETING

Advising and guidance refer to all activities aimed at enabling the future student to plan and manage their learning in a way that is consistent with their personal life goals and makes full use of their individual skills and interests to achieve personal fulfilment.

Depending on the stage of the university process at which these activities are carried out, a distinction is made between:

Advising: carried out before the choice of course of study, it is aimed at future students and offers support in identifying the course to be undertaken on the basis of individual interests, expectations and aptitudes. In this phase, the various possible scenarios are presented to the future student and the alternatives of the university path are illustrated;
Guidance: carried out during the university career, it is aimed at enrolled students and is designed to guide them through the courses of study already undertaken, allowing them to establish a better interaction with the structures and the university context;
Career guidance: carried out close to or after graduation, is aimed at graduates or graduating students and is designed to facilitate their introduction into the working environment.

Entry orientation

Guidance actions play a decisive role in the complex and articulated process of higher education of the new generations. The choice of a university study path is indeed a very delicate moment in the life of the student who has to make a conscious choice in order to build his or her own life project; shortcomings in entry guidance contribute to an increase in the number of study drop-outs, as well as to slowing down student careers by disproportionately increasing the time it takes to obtain a degree.

The main activities of the Academic and Career Guidance division are carried out in support of and in close collaboration with the Department's guidance delegate teachers and range from the organisation of and participation in guidance meetings held at upper secondary schools to the organisation of educational visits to the Department, aimed at the choice of course of study for students in the final years of upper secondary schools, from participation in national orientation fairs, organised in various locations throughout Italy, to collaboration in the organisation of the 'Studiare a Parma' (Study in Parma) open days, held annually at the University in the spring, and the 'From Maturity to University' info days, held annually in the summer, to coincide with the opening of enrolment.

At the Department level, an annual presentation is organised for students of the First-cycle degree courses (CLEM and FOOD System) of the various Second-cycle Degrees activated at the SEA Department level; at this event, the TRADE President or his/her delegate presents the degree course in detail and answers students' questions directly in the classroom.

Videos and slides of the course presentation at the Second-cycle degree open day remain on the site for all future students.

Guidance delegate

Prof. Silvia Bellini

Guidance activities support students in their choice of university pathway.

Guidance and tutoring

The purpose of the service is to support the proper integration of students in the course of study through, in particular, specific tutoring activities aimed at students enrolled in the first year of the course, as well as to encourage effective career progression by students through, in particular, assistance in the compilation of individual programmes of study, ongoing guidance activities aimed at encouraging students to choose the course of study best suited to their characteristics, and remedial activities for students experiencing difficulties.

In parallel with strengthening the tools for assessing students' incoming skills, particularly for those with a high drop-out rate, the university provides remedial teaching actions and ensures adequate tutoring services throughout the university course, calibrated taking into account the assessment mechanisms of the courses of study, with the aim of pursuing the result of improving their quality, by providing tutors for each individual course of study. Guidance and tutoring, therefore, take on particular significance in view of the growing importance of the improvement and success, from an educational point of view, of regularly enrolled students, an aspect that cannot, however, disregard the initial level of basic skills of incoming students, which contributes significantly to the underperformance of enrolled students. In order to improve specific performance, the University of Parma intended to develop a series of actions aimed at the integration and enhancement of the core subject areas, as well as the implementation of supplementary preparatory and preparatory courses for examinations.

For the purpose of carrying out tutoring activities for students, there are two separate tutors within the Department of Economics and Management: (i) Tutoring (TU); (ii) Supplementary, preparatory and remedial teaching activities (DI).
As far as Tutoring (TU) activities are concerned, persons are appointed by the Department Council to support the students of the Department's degree courses (L-18 ex 270/04 and earlier systems).

The page dedicated to Tutoring activities on the Department's website is: https://sea.unipr.it/it/tutor-economia